Harrison is a city in Boone County, Arkansas, United States. It is the county seat. It named after General M. LaRue Harrison, a surveyor that laid out the city along Crooked Creek at Stifler Springs.[2] According to 2012 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city was 13,163,[3] up from 12,943 at the 2010 census.[4]

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Boone County was organized in 1869, during Reconstruction after the Civil War. Harrison was platted and made the county seat. It is named after L. LaRue Harrison, a Union officer who surveyed and platted the town.

Native Americans were the first inhabitants of the area, the first probably being cliff dwellers who lived in caves in the bluffs along the rivers. In later times, the Osage, a branch of the Sioux, was the main tribe in the Ozarks, and one of their larger villages is thought to have been to the east of the present site of Harrison. The Shawnee, Quapaw, and Caddo people were also familiar to the area.

The Cherokee arrived around 1816 and did not get along with the Osage. This hostility erupted into a full-scale war in the Ozark Mountains. By the 1830s both tribes were removed to Indian Territory. It is possible that the first white men to visit the area were some forty followers of Hernando de Soto and that they camped at a Native village on the White River at the mouth of Bear Creek. It is more likely that the discoverers were French hunters or trappers who followed the course of the White River.

In early 1857, the Baker-Fancher wagon train assembled at Beller's Stand, south of Harrison. On September 11, 1857, approximately 120 members of this wagon train were murdered near Mountain Meadows, Utah Territory, by attacking local Mormon militia and members of the Paiute Indian tribe. In 1955, a monument to memorialize the victims of the massacre was placed on the Harrison town square.[5]

The notorious bank robber and convicted murderer Henry Starr met his fate in Harrison on February 18, 1921, when Starr and three companions entered the People's State Bank and robbed it of $6000.00. During the robbery, Starr was shot by the former president of the bank, William J. Myers. Starr was carried to the town jail, where he died the next morning.[9]

The Harrison Police Department has had two officers killed in the line of duty, both by gunfire and within a year of one another. The first was officer Ed Williams, killed on a disturbance call on May 25, 1934.[10] The second was Chief of Police Burr Robertson, killed while arresting a murder suspect at the railroad station on March 27, 1935.[11]

On May 7, 1961, heavy rain caused Crooked Creek, immediately south of the downtown business district, to flood the town square and much of the southwestern part of the city. Water levels inside buildings reached eight feet. Many small buildings and automobiles were swept away. According to the American Red Cross, four lives were lost, 80 percent of the town's business district was destroyed, and over 300 buildings were damaged or destroyed in losses exceeding $5.4 million.[12]

Thomas Robb, national director of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, maintains his office near Harrison in the outlying town of Zinc and uses a Harrison mailing address for the organization.[13] Combined with the history of the 1905 and 1909 banishment of unemployed, former railroad workers, this incidental connection to the KKK has given the town a negative image which it has taken active steps to combat in recent years.[14] In 2013, a billboard appeared that read: "Anti-Racist is a Code Word for Anti-White." In response, a local radio station removed its nearby billboard, and students from North Arkansas College passed out fliers calling for a protest of the sign. [15] An official statement read: "The mayor’s office considers the content inflammatory, distasteful and not in line with the truth on how Harrison is a city of welcoming and tolerant citizens."[16]

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 11.1 square miles (28.8 km2), of which 11.1 square miles (28.7 km2) is land and 0.04 square miles (0.1 km2), or 0.26%, is water.[4]

23.2% of the population was under the age of 18, and 19.0% were 65 years of age or older. Females made up 53.1% of the population, and males made up 46.9% of the population.

The median income for the period 2007-11 for a household in the city was $33,244, and the number of people living below the poverty level was 15.1%. The median value of owner-occupied housing units was $108,700.[21]

Harrison is home to the general office of FedEx Freight and the second Walmart store opened, Wal-Mart #2, in 1965. The Boone County Courthouse, completed in 1909, serves as the heart of the downtown district and is central to Harrison's town square.

The Ozarks Arts Council is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization established in 1996 with the mission "To enrich lives by promoting the arts in Harrison and North Arkansas through exhibitions, performances, and education."[22] It provides administrative support and distributes financial and in-kind donations to its member organizations:

The Theatre Company

Northark Drama

Twentieth Century Club

Woman's Book Club

Ozark Children's Choir

The historic Lyric Theatre is managed by the Ozark Arts Council. Originally opened as a movie theater in 1929, it is now used for plays, community events, old movies and other gatherings.[23]

In 2008 F.S. Garrison Stadium was opened after almost six years of fundraising by Kim Rosson, President, and the Goblin Booster Club. It is named in memory of F. Sheridan Garrison, founder of the American Freightways Corp. (now FedEx Freight). Over $7 million was raised for the stadium project by the Goblin Booster Club. The largest donors were the Garrison Family and Mosco Cash, owner of Home Ice Company. Before the first game against the Mountain Home Bombers on September 12, 2008, it was donated to the Harrison School District.

It features grandstand seating for 2,700 and overflow seating for 500 as well as a videoboard and scoreboard for commercial, live play, and instant replay. It is located at 1125 Goblin Drive in Harrison.[24] The stadium is the site of one of the annual Brandon Burlsworth Foundation Football Camps.[25]

KTKO-TV 8.1, also known as TKO 8, provides coverage for local events including Goblin Sports, Harrison City Council meetings, and Boone County Quorum Court meetings.[32] It is a member of the Me-TV Network showing a wide range of classic television programming.[33]